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Black Republic of Letters

Note – Arthur Meyer

Arthur Meyer (1844-1924) was a French journalist and playwright who ran the conservative paper Le Gaulois beginning in 1882. Learn more about Arthur Meyer.

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La Lanterne and Vodou
Error and Malevolence
On the 1st of October, the newspaper La Lanterne published, under the heading of Vodou, Curious Haitian Customs, a long article in which it was said that "Vodou with its superstitions remains and will remain, until the end of independence (?) the only religion of the Haitian people; that new temples are springing up even in Port-au-Prince, and a nearly endless stream of sacrifices are bloodying the new altars, around which come to dance, wail and vociferate, before taking part in the final feast, nine tenths of the Haitian population, not to say the totality."

From the first lines, those who know a thing or two say to themselves that the author of this anonymous article must be one of those knights... of the pen, who go to Haiti to carry on their small-scale industry, and return to Europe only to deluge us with insults and slander, after the booty they amassed does not completely satisfy their frightful greed.

To claim that "Vodou, having become all-powerful once again under the presidency of General Hyppolite, is the religion (?) that dominates in the Black Republic today, and that it will certainly play the role in the next revolution (!) that the Piquets played under Salomon," is a falsehood whose malevolence will not be lost on anyone.

Thus are published, periodically, in certain Parisian newspapers, so many absurdities and sheer lies against Haiti, that people are getting used to them. But it is about time we had a greater concern for the truth in Europe.

And if Mister anonymous of La Lanterne wanted to be frank, he would admit that he had merely flipped through the remarkably odious book of Mr. Spenser Saint-John, former English consul in Port-au-Prince—which only reproduced what Gustave d'Alaux wrote in 1848 on Soulouqe et son empire—to find what he served up in the form of news for the readers of La Lanterne.

Vodou, which the first Black Africans implanted in Haiti, has long lost its power and its occult prestige. For twenty years, the succession of different Governments have spared no expense to seek its complete extinction, and the current Government, just like its predecessors, is seeking to erase it down to its last vestiges. While our Constitution guarantees the freedom of religions, this has never included Vodou, which has never been considered a religion in Haiti.

Almost all of the travellers who have visited Haiti—as the writer-idler of La Lantern himself admits—have published more or less fantastical accounts of it. Our anonymous author seems to also have wanted us to take Mr. Meyer's newspaper as a bladder more or less full of fairy tales.

There is an unfortunately large number of foreigners who study the customs of countries in the manner of that Englishman who, after a visit to Ballier, wrote phlegmatically in his notebook: "French women raise their legs so high when dancing!" As soon as a Basque drum resounds in the mornes of the countryside, and the Blacks of Haiti execute a dance that has little to do with the jig or the polka, they talk about the bamboula and start shouting "Vodou!". But in that case, they also dance the Vodou in Batignolles.

The Anti-Slavery Congress, in letting us momentarily forget the odious ridicule that is unendingly heaped on Black people, forced the civilized world to consider its duty toward the slandered race a bit more seriously. There are men who were bothered by this. And that is why La Lanterne republished an old story and spoke of "new temples springing up in honour of the sacred serpent even in Port-au-Prince."

It's all the same! O candid and good Parisian public, you have been forced to swallow so many tall tales!...

Benito Sylvain

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